WASHINGTON – U.N. arms inspectors yesterday said they need six months to a year to do their job.

In a statement certain to complicate White House efforts to build an international coalition to forcibly remove Saddam Hussein from power, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency pleaded for more time. “It’s a far better option to wait a little longer than to have to resort to war,” said IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky.

“We’ve only been there for seven weeks now. The longer that we’re there, the more likely we are to detect something that might be illegally proceeding or to deter the Iraqis from reconstituting any capability that they might have,” Gwozdecky added.

Gwozdecky said the inspectors have made it clear from the beginning “that this is an operation that could take in the vicinity of a year.”

For the last several weeks, the Bush administration has been operating on a timetable that calls for decisions about whether to go to war with Iraq to be made shortly after Jan. 27 when chief arms inspector Hans Blix makes a report to the U.N. Security Council.

But yesterday, even as more ships and troops headed to the Persian Gulf, there appeared to be some backing off that plan – at least in public.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, reacting to the IAEA statement, said President Bush “thinks it remains important for the inspectors to do their job and have time to do their job.”

Defense officials also have suggested logistical problems in amassing a force of 250,000 troops around Iraq could delay an invasion until late February or March.

But some military experts cautioned that some of these statements could be part of an elaborate deception operation to lull Saddam into the belief that he is winning the propaganda war and to preserve the all-important element of surprise.

Meanwhile, inspection teams in Iraq stepped up their investigation yesterday, visiting several sites, including the University of Technology in Baghdad and the College of Science for Men and the College for Science for Women at the University of Baghdad.